Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Granola Bars via How Sweet It Is

Fun, Refreshing, Healthy with a touch of bacon on top. Yup, that is the food blog ‘How Sweet It Is’ that Jesscia Merchant created. Jessica is a former personal trainer who writes about food, fitness and living a healthy, balanced life at How Sweet It is. She believes in loving what you do and doing what you love, and enjoys bacon and the treadmill equally.

I enjoy Jessica’s blog as she seems so sweet and based on her storytelling, lots of fun. In fact, I have imagined her as the super fun but grown-up babysitter. The kids would love her to babysit, I am sure of it. I bet if she was babysitting they would eat BLT’s and giggle the whole time. I also wish Jessica was my neighbor as I know we would go for walks while sipping coffee or tea and then take turns making messes in each others kitchens while we created all kinds of tasty nibbles.

Okay, so anyhow, I was doing the daily check-in at her blog and saw that she made some 5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars. I wrote her and begged her to let me feature them here and her Chicken Macaroni & Cheeseon Babble and if she did, I would send her bacon. Luckily, she said go for it but keep the bacon.

In a large bowl, combine oats, chia seeds and peanuts. Add brown rice syrup (or honey) and mix to combine. Add melted peanut butter and mix until moistened. This works as a perfect, simple granola bar, but you can also throw in any add-ins at this time. Fold them into the dough. You may need to get in there with your hands and work the granola dough! If dough is still too dry (this can depend on your ingredients) add more peanut butter or syrup (or honey) 1 tablespoon at a time until moistened.

These would also work as a great no-bake granola bar, but I liked how they came together and the chocolate chips melted as they got warm. If you want to make no-bakes, simply press the dough into the pan and refrigerate for 60 minutes.

These look so great. What a good snack for my kiddos and I. I’m bookmarking to make this weekend! So glad to jump to your blog from Twitter…. Love it and will be a regular reader. Have a super weekend!!!

Saw this on Pininterest, they look delicious, how long do these last as I’d love to make these for lunches – if wrapped in plastic wrap after they are cooked do they need to stay refrigerated or can they sit out?

The same thing happened with mine, Amber. It tastes delicious, but I’m pretty disappointed that they just crumble. I put them in the fridge, so hopefully they will set more, but I don’t think they will. Disappointing especially because that was a lot of peanut butter to waste

Mine fell apart as well. I still love the taste though. I am just eating with a spoon instead! Do I just need to add more peanut butter you think? I did add in the following: 1/4 c wheat germ, 1/4 c milled flax seed, 1/2 c crasins and 1/2c apricots. I put a whole 16 oz. jar of reduced fat natural peanut butter and added more honey as well. I would love for them to be a bar so it is easier to eat. I would love any insight on this! Thanks!

This is great! I saw a new display of gluten free bars at the grocery and on the front it said gluten free… and in the ingredients said wheat.. READ LABELS because it is an uneducated world out there lol. Anyway.. I am making these.. with marshmallows.. MMM!! <3

Do these come out chewy or crunchy? Also, any word on the crumbling issue? I’m on a VERY limited budget (new teacher with out of state college debt!) and don’t want to waste the money on ingredients if they just crumble! thanx!

Thanks so much for the great recipe! I’m thinking of trying this out today since I have everything on-hand, but I have a question first: my husband and I are in the process of trying to go sugar-free since we both have a bit of weight to lose and I’m 4 months pregnant, so I’m wondering if I could substitute agave nectar for the brown rice syrup/honey. Would that work in terms of flavor, or would it make it overly sweet? Thanks again, great recipe and I can’t wait to try it out!

This sounds delicious with all the yummy ingredients I would just keep it in a baggie or jar for snacking or to sprinkle on yogurt or ice cream if they crumble. Why throw these yummy crumbs away? No waste here!! My college son is gonna love this!!

Hi jessica – no, you are not missing anything. She guest posted here but you can email her to get her suggestions on how to make the recipe better or even let her know that it is not working. Good Luck! p.s. I am going to work on the recipe and modify it until it works.